Scott Norton on Don Frye & How Inoki Nearly DESTROYED New Japan Pro Wrestling

Поділитися
Вставка
  • Опубліковано 24 січ 2025

КОМЕНТАРІ • 120

  • @nullterm
    @nullterm Місяць тому +22

    Absolutely loving the Scott Norton stories. I’d love to crack a beer with him and just listen to his stories and insights.

    • @joshshields9229
      @joshshields9229 Місяць тому +3

      I got to meet him and a pre Raven, Scotty "The Body" Levy, back when they wrestled for Portland Wrestling.
      Norton was really cool.
      "Raven" was okay. He just had this naturally condescending tone, that made people think that he thought he was the smartest guy in the building. Years later, I learned that he most likely was. 😂

  • @Nunnayadambiness
    @Nunnayadambiness Місяць тому +17

    I remember on old message boards when Josh Barnett and Norton's wife had beef.

    • @WendySmith-o2e
      @WendySmith-o2e Місяць тому +10

      I just watched RVD telling a story about her starting shit between him & Norton. Also heard something about her almost getting him killed in Japan, now your comment. She sounds like a real pleasure to be around! 😂 Pardon my ignorance. I never really knew much about Norton, until recent interviews

    • @ff7fanboi
      @ff7fanboi Місяць тому +6

      She’s probably tired of “hearing” how tough Scott is and actually wants to see it

  • @scottbrown-vc2lp
    @scottbrown-vc2lp Місяць тому +15

    i remember dan severn and steve blackman! them are some tough ace dudes!

    • @johnny5805
      @johnny5805 Місяць тому +5

      One's a wrestler who did some martial arts in his spare time, the other is a martial artist who did some wrestling in his spare time.

    • @scottbrown-vc2lp
      @scottbrown-vc2lp Місяць тому +2

      @@johnny5805 and i liked them both! is there something you wanted to say?

    • @scottbrown-vc2lp
      @scottbrown-vc2lp Місяць тому

      @@johnny5805 also one is retired and one is a bounty hunter!

    • @scottbrown-vc2lp
      @scottbrown-vc2lp Місяць тому

      @@johnny5805 what is your point?

    • @scottbrown-vc2lp
      @scottbrown-vc2lp Місяць тому

      @@johnny5805 you replied to me with a comment that makes no sense at all

  • @HajimeNoJMo
    @HajimeNoJMo Місяць тому +3

    The first time I studied abroad in Japan in 2001, I was surprised how huge of a star Norton was. All my Japanese classmates who were wrestling fans were surprised he was relatively a nobody in the US.

  • @oldcrow6990
    @oldcrow6990 Місяць тому +2

    Hi Scott! It's Marcia from the old neighborhood. Shingle Creek.

  • @markwrenn5965
    @markwrenn5965 Місяць тому +1

    This is fascinating! Im also a huge mma fan. Cool to hear this from someone who was a big wrestling star in Japan at the time of the rise of Pride.

  • @liamclarke5275
    @liamclarke5275 Місяць тому +3

    I made this point to Nigel McGuiness at the Empire in Belfast after he did a doc showing and he looked at me like I stole his lunch money. He was planning to start some sort of hybrid (shoot & worked on the same show) show I think.
    Tbf Josh Barnett has found a small niche for Bloodsport which is presented as a hybrid (worked but presented like a shoot).

    • @Halbared
      @Halbared Місяць тому +1

      I enjoyed UWFI when it was on.

  • @kevthegoat8774
    @kevthegoat8774 Місяць тому +3

    The fact that Yuji Nagata's only two MMA fights were against Mirko Cro Cop and Fedor Enelianenko. Inoki set his wrestlers up for failure by this kind of matchmaking. If he wanted them to fight they should have fought people of the same experience.

  • @loboneiner1034
    @loboneiner1034 Місяць тому +8

    AJPW & NOAH was a fascinating story

    • @PontFlair
      @PontFlair Місяць тому +3

      Baba's wife pretty much caused all of that.
      R.I.P. Giant Baba

    • @loboneiner1034
      @loboneiner1034 Місяць тому +3

      @PontFlair yeah. The fact that AJPW managed to survive a major exodus 3 times is crazy.

    • @PontFlair
      @PontFlair Місяць тому

      @@loboneiner1034 I haven't heard much from AJPW with the exception of Kentoh Miahara. Are they even still around?

    • @andrewsarkis4516
      @andrewsarkis4516 Місяць тому +1

      @@PontFlairHarry Smith became their triple crown champion over there

    • @PontFlair
      @PontFlair Місяць тому

      @@andrewsarkis4516 in AJPW? They still exist?!?👀

  • @VultureLivesAgain
    @VultureLivesAgain Місяць тому +1

    With all due respect to Scott Norton, he was never gonna throw anybody over the top rope in Pride. It doesn't matter how powerful he was in the gym. He would have taken a loss in the Pride ring, unless they fed him a complete and total jobber.

    • @kevthegoat8774
      @kevthegoat8774 Місяць тому +1

      Facts, he would have already been 39/40 when Pride really took off in 2000/2001 and had no amateur wrestling/Martial Arts background and had been taking bumps in Professional Wrestling for the last 11 years. He was strong but he wasn't skilled or particularly fast or athletic like Bob Sapp who was also a lot younger. Norton would have gotten beat by a regional MMA heavyweight let alone a Pride/UFC Heavyweight.

    • @VultureLivesAgain
      @VultureLivesAgain Місяць тому +1

      @kevthegoat8774 And even Bob Sapp wasn't a world beater in Pride. Not that he had many matches.

  • @bluntamainia444
    @bluntamainia444 Місяць тому +5

    The MMA stuff in NJPW was too much at times. It felt weird visually

  • @robertcranford4001
    @robertcranford4001 Місяць тому +1

    Never cared for Norton's in the ring but he's a great interview.

  • @thevoice6961
    @thevoice6961 Місяць тому +4

    Mr. Norton... the Inoki vs. Ali match was not an 'exhibition.' Ali was hospitalized after the fight and Inoki injured his right foot after all those sliding kicks - simply not an outcome for an exhibition. With respect to what Inoki envisioned for his younger boys, it had a lot to do with how he trained when starting out in JWA (Japan Wrestling Association) in the 1960s. The organization had legit jujitsu and Kosen judo types, amateur wrestlers, and others who believed in developing skills for shoot matches. This was before Karl Gotch came along to Japan to coach promising talent. But Inoki's spirit sadly did not get passed on and NJPW today is really no different from what you have in the U.S.

    • @jpmiller7922
      @jpmiller7922 Місяць тому +2

      The match had effect on the standing of Inoki or Ali in their respective sports, thus it was very much an exhibition. An exhibition doesn't mean they're just demonstrating moves. It is a match or game that doesn't affect rankings.

    • @GlenSharp-g4x
      @GlenSharp-g4x Місяць тому

      They were suppose to do a WWE style match with ALI knocking Inoki out in the middle rounds but the Ali camp didn’t trust the wrestlers and it became a real fight both participants being overly cautious

  • @justanobody0
    @justanobody0 Місяць тому +1

    there was another part of the interview where I think Scott said he was pushing 350, anyways, if I'm misremembering I think he was at least 300
    anyways, from the sounds of it, he was a big guy
    I don't think I knew Scott Norton before this year, and I think I actually learned about him from a Buff Bagwell video

    • @birdmanhero
      @birdmanhero 21 день тому +1

      In his prime, Norton was a tank of a man and was an arm wrestling champion before getting into pro wrestling

  • @georgeh4171
    @georgeh4171 Місяць тому +56

    How did wrestling go from genuine tough guys like Don Frye and Scott Norton to drama club rejects like the Bucks and Omega.

    • @BrophyMC
      @BrophyMC Місяць тому

      Prob when ppl started suing each other lol

    • @PontFlair
      @PontFlair Місяць тому +9

      I would fly to Japan to watch Norton and Frye vs "The Elite" IF I knew it would turn into a shoot LOL

    • @russellcampbell3500
      @russellcampbell3500 Місяць тому +6

      I hate to say it but imo it’s mick foley and c.m. Punks fault. Genuinely believe that put a look and a vibe that we could never come back from. There’s others things but these two are the biggest imo

    • @PontFlair
      @PontFlair Місяць тому +9

      @@russellcampbell3500 wtf are you talking about? LOL

    • @TheFlamingPike
      @TheFlamingPike Місяць тому +5

      There are still genuine tough guys today, it's just that there is a new type of smaller wrestlers now due to the influence of lucha libre. Guys like Walter or the Butcher prove that.

  • @alexandru5369
    @alexandru5369 Місяць тому +1

    Yeah it's like trying too make the NFL into the Arena league or NBA into a Harlem Globetrotters stunt.Just will never work

  • @tubby6339
    @tubby6339 Місяць тому +2

    A reverse brawl for all

  • @averagecarpentryskills7148
    @averagecarpentryskills7148 Місяць тому +5

    MMA is serious and I respect it and understand why fans like it. Looking at fake martial artists now the con artists who used to trick people I am glad it's down to a science. But that said, its influence made wrestling less fun. Especially in Japan. and eventually here in the states. I also like how fun and cheesy martial arts were in 80s and 90s before MMA became a big thing. I'd also rather watch the wild west days of early UFC over current boring UFC.

    • @MrArukimasu
      @MrArukimasu Місяць тому +1

      💯 second all of this

  • @kevthegoat8774
    @kevthegoat8774 Місяць тому

    Inoki also put Manabu Nakanishi who was a good Freestyle Wrestler that wrestled in the Olympics in a KICKBOXING match despite clearly having very little training on striking. He got knocked out by ex New Zealand's strongest man Paul Kingi in less than two minutes.

  • @stevenoconnor3256
    @stevenoconnor3256 Місяць тому +9

    Pro wrestling comes from catch wrestling. A 100 or more years ago MMA would be almost nothing but catch wrestlers and judo guys.

    • @VultureLivesAgain
      @VultureLivesAgain Місяць тому

      There were plenty more martial arts than that, don't you think?

    • @stevenoconnor3256
      @stevenoconnor3256 Місяць тому

      @@VultureLivesAgain Yeah, but those two arts are really well rounded and even more so in the past as sport rulesets didn't limit them like they do with judo today. Those two would likely be the base everyone would train.

    • @VultureLivesAgain
      @VultureLivesAgain Місяць тому

      @@stevenoconnor3256 Is catch wrestling limited by sport rulesets today? Why would catch wrestling have been a dominant base 100 years ago, and yet it's so uncommon today?

    • @stevenoconnor3256
      @stevenoconnor3256 Місяць тому

      @@VultureLivesAgain Wresting is dominant in MMA today. Catch wrestling is wrestling with everything in it and the main sport became professional wrestling and the rest took out the submission for being dangerous. It's an almost dead art.

    • @VultureLivesAgain
      @VultureLivesAgain Місяць тому

      @@stevenoconnor3256 Wrestling is fairly dominant. But not catch wrestling.

  • @Ifoughtpiranhas
    @Ifoughtpiranhas Місяць тому

    That must've been where Frye met the legend that is HAKU!

  • @naughtiusmaximus1811
    @naughtiusmaximus1811 Місяць тому +2

    It's real to me, dammit!!!!

  • @randolphdefreese7874
    @randolphdefreese7874 Місяць тому

    It still is,it is now called "Strong Style"

  • @justinebding6282
    @justinebding6282 Місяць тому +5

    Tito Ortiz in Jon Jones were D2 wrestling colleges and we're not standouts and became UFC champions. Believe it or not high school wrestlers are pretty dangerous specially raised an state that cares about wrestling

    • @kevthegoat8774
      @kevthegoat8774 Місяць тому +1

      Yeah but Norton is not referring to those guys, he's referring to guys who were professional wrestlers for years and had amateur wrestling backgrounds but after years of just doing Pro Wrestling they were expected to win shoot fights against guys who had been fighting all that time. Yuji Nagata was a good amateur wrestler but had been wrestling professionally for ten years by the time he fought in MMA, way past his competitive prime at 33 years old and likely not trained any amateur wrestling since being a professional wrestler they put him against a great Kickboxer and upcoming great MMA fighter Mirko Cro Cop. Kazuyuki Fujita and Shinsuke Nakamura were two guys who were clearly better shoot fighters than the rest of the Japanese wrestlers due to Shinsuke being in his early 20's so he wasn't far removed from his amateur wrestling days and Fujita has only wrestled professionally for four years until he fought in MMA. Fujita had also seeked out further training from Marco Ruas. What Inoki did to Yuji Nagata would be the equivalent to having Kurt Angle at 35 in 2003 after breaking his neck and several years of abusing his body in professional wrestling and suddenly expecting him to beat guys like Chuck Liddell or Tito Ortiz.

    • @justanobody0
      @justanobody0 Місяць тому +1

      and GSP had no wrestling background, and was probably considered the best mma wrestler in mma
      like Josh Koscheck seemed like an incredible athlete, and great wrestler
      and it was surprizing when George got a takedown on him

    • @kevthegoat8774
      @kevthegoat8774 Місяць тому

      @@justanobody0 GSP has been training in Martial Arts since he was a child and had his first MMA fight at 20, he dedicated his whole life to fighting. Not like the Japanese Pro wrestlers who did some amateur wrestling then stopped to completely focus on the professional aspect for 10+years then try to fight top fighters.

    • @justanobody0
      @justanobody0 Місяць тому

      @kevthegoat8774 you bring up Kurt Angle and Mirko Crocop
      well Shane Carwin seemed to have legitimate back problems (akin to Kurt angle)
      and he was like 33 when he faced Gabriel Gonzaga (and won)
      and since you brought up Crocop, Gonzga had beaten Crocop

    • @kevthegoat8774
      @kevthegoat8774 Місяць тому

      ​@@justanobody0Shane Carwin had his first professional fight in 2005 at 30 years old while also being an assistant wrestling coach. Carwin even in 2005 destroys Angle who would have been 37 years old and going through a pain pill addiction.

  • @ducklife420
    @ducklife420 Місяць тому +1

    Don was so tough he had a broken back and kept wrestling

    • @elmalifico3708
      @elmalifico3708 Місяць тому +2

      During his MMA fight with Ken Shamrock, Ken broke both of Frye’s ankles but Don didn’t submit. He still beat Ken Shamrock via decision.

    • @VultureLivesAgain
      @VultureLivesAgain Місяць тому

      ​@@elmalifico3708He was also high on pain pills during the fight.

    • @moonkim2598
      @moonkim2598 Місяць тому +1

      That’s because he was pilled up. He said so, himself.

    • @VultureLivesAgain
      @VultureLivesAgain Місяць тому

      @@moonkim2598 That's true. He also heavily taped up his ankles before the fight, knowing that Shamrock would likely go for heel hooks. But, to be fair to Don, he was very tough in general, and he never tapped out in his career. It looked like he was gonna allow Yoshida to break his arm when they fought. Don was caught in an arm bar and there was no indication that he was gonna tap. But the ref wisely stopped the match in time.

  • @ethanellis2896
    @ethanellis2896 Місяць тому

    Should of asked scott about his wife/RVD scuffle 😅

  • @kevthegoat8774
    @kevthegoat8774 Місяць тому

    Norton may have been a powerhouse but he didn't have the amateur wrestling skills of guys like Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi who were put in shoots and didn't do great, Norton wouldn't have done any better than either of them.

    • @justanobody0
      @justanobody0 Місяць тому

      that would be like saying if Bob Sapp couldn't beat Ernesto Hoost
      that would mean Bill Goldberg couldn't beat Ernesto Hoost, because Bob Sapp and Bill Goldberg are both former football players
      by your logic Brock Lesnar (a pro wrestler) never should've beaten Heath Herring, because Brock is a pro wrestler with basically no mma experience (2nd fight) and Heath Herring was very experienced in mma in Japan

    • @kevthegoat8774
      @kevthegoat8774 Місяць тому

      ​@@justanobody0Sapp and Lesnar are freaks of nature. Also Sapp did have some good wins like Hoost twice and Abidi he also lost to multiple much more experienced fighters like Sefo, Cro Cop, Bonjasky, Musashi, Aerts etc who all pretty much handled Sapp with little problems.
      Lesnar was an NCAA D1 Champion who had started MMA training in 2005, only a few years removed from his amateur wrestling days in 2000.
      Heath Herring was Lesnar's third MMA fight, Herring was at the end of his career and while durable was never good at defending takedowns. Jake O'Brien did the exact same thing to Herring not long before Lesnar did where he took him down multiple times with ease.
      There's many legitimate tough guys in professional wrestling, but switching to MMA after professional wrestling for years is usually not a recipe for success. Guys like Rodney Mack and Sean O'Haire are great examples as Rodney Mack was a State Wrestling Champion with Greco Roman Wrestling experience and O'Haire was a Martial Artist but after a few years of Professional Wrestling they went into MMA and Mack went 1-1 and O'Haire went 4-2 and 0-4 in K-1 (The matchmaking was bad for him though.
      If you want to see the difference between Lesnar and most professional wrestlers when it comes to shoot fighting, watch Sean O'Haire and Brock Lesnar's fights back to back with common opponent Kim Min-soo.

  • @AmericanCombatAssoc
    @AmericanCombatAssoc Місяць тому +1

    Scott Norton needs to read the Rough and Tumble book to learn how MMA was spawned from pro wrestling in Japan before Cro Cop or Don Frye with Shooto, Pancrase and Rings. He is a bit ignorant of the history before PrideFC

  • @ff7fanboi
    @ff7fanboi Місяць тому +3

    “I wanted to fight but they wouldn’t let me” 🙄

    • @ShowtimeDr
      @ShowtimeDr Місяць тому +1

      You can fight him

    • @ff7fanboi
      @ff7fanboi Місяць тому

      @@ShowtimeDr sure… let me fight you first tho

  • @salvagemonster3612
    @salvagemonster3612 Місяць тому

    I can’t even recall Scott Norton in wrestling

    • @joshtinsley138
      @joshtinsley138 Місяць тому +3

      He was a midcarder in WCW when he was in the NWO. Definitely a bigger deal in Japan, but had some success in the states

  • @ainaa-m2n
    @ainaa-m2n Місяць тому +2

    Tbh that strong style/mma is still messing up Japan wrestling 😂
    Wanna be tough guys 😂

  • @miesvaillanykyisyytta3252
    @miesvaillanykyisyytta3252 Місяць тому

    I'm not sure why Norton should have accepted a fight deal nor do I know why he was offered one although I assume it was the 90's when it was still more about freakiness and pitting styles against one another etc. but to my knowledge Norton does not have any training in real fighting. It's probably a good thing for his legacy that he did not accept the offer.

    • @kevthegoat8774
      @kevthegoat8774 Місяць тому

      I'm guessing he's talking about the mid 2000's here when Inoki was going crazy booking his wrestlers in shoot fights. Norton may have been very strong and I'm sure he was a great bouncer/bodyguard but he has no wrestling/Martial Arts background. He would have got destroyed just like Yuji Nagata did.
      Manabu Nakanishi was a Freestyle Wrestler that wrestled in the Olympics 1992. After 11 years of professional wrestling Inoki booked him in a Kickboxing match despite having no striking training against ex New Zealand's strongest man Paul Kingi, Nakanishi got knocked out in two minutes. Inoki also booked him in MMA which made more sense but put him against fellow wrestler Kazuyuki Fujita who was much more experienced in MMA at the time so lost that one too. Nakanishi no doubt would have beaten Norton though.

    • @miesvaillanykyisyytta3252
      @miesvaillanykyisyytta3252 Місяць тому

      @kevthegoat8774 Yeah. There are a couple shoot or fight stories about Norton and both of them seem to have Norton not coming out on top. One was with the black karate guy who allegedly kicked him in the ring and Norton did nothing and another alleged incident was with Tony Halme knocking him out in a bar. Some say it was a sucker punch and the whole story may be a fabrication but Tony (AKA Ludvig Borga) was a legitimate boxing champion though known for his sloppy technique; I think it's doubtful that Tony would have needed to sucker punch Norton given that he went on to beat the European boxing champion in the ring. Other than Tony's boxing they would have been quite evenly matched.

    • @justanobody0
      @justanobody0 Місяць тому

      @kevthegoat8774 as I understand it Ernesto Hoost is considered one of the greatest kickboxers of all time, if not the greatest
      and Bob Sapp beat him twice I think? (at least once if I recall correctly)
      I don't think anyone would say Bob Sapp trained more kickboxing, or has better technique, but at the end of the day Bob Sapp won (twice?)
      and the other thing I'd say is, you don't know who is going to win until the bout happens
      would everyone say a 45 year Dan Henderson who fought at MW (185 pounds) would be Fedor?

    • @kevthegoat8774
      @kevthegoat8774 Місяць тому

      @@justanobody0 Bob Sapp was 29 years old with insane size/athletic ability. He was much fresher and stronger than professional wrestlers who had been abusing their bodies for years in worked matches and not doing any training.

    • @justanobody0
      @justanobody0 Місяць тому

      @kevthegoat8774 "He was much fresher and stronger than professional wrestlers who had been abusing their bodies for years"
      well, I guess someone would have to ask Scott Norton how his body felt at that time
      in the video he said he wanted to do mma when he was offered, so it sounds like he felt good

  • @ainaa-m2n
    @ainaa-m2n Місяць тому +1

    Tbh that strong style/mma is still messing up Japan wrestling 😂
    Wanna be tough guys 😂